From: Barry Salter Subject: RESULT - Create uk.local.southwest.adverts PASSES 28:16 Date: 21 Feb 1999 12:27:36 -0000 Message-ID: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- RESULT OF CALL FOR VOTES Summary: Creating new newsgroup uk.local.southwest.adverts Create newsgroup uk.local.southwest.adverts PASSES 28:16 - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Voting closed at 23:59:59 GMT, 15th February 1999 Proponent: Tim Miller Votetaker: Barry Salter - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Distribution: uk.net.news.announce, uk.net.news.config, uk.local.southwest - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Results: The results follow below in the following order: 1) Result 2) Particulars of the Vote 3) Votetakers comments 4) Voting and Appeal guidelines 5) Rationale & Newsgroup charter PROPOSAL - Create newsgroup uk.local.southwest.adverts YES = 28 = 60.9% NO = 16 = 34.8% ABSTAIN = 2 = 4.3% YES beat NO by a majority of 12 votes, this is more than the +12 majority required to beat the status quo. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- uk.local.southwest.adverts Final Vote Ack Voted Yes : 28 votes (60.9%) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- al~#~eschaton.demon.co.hx (Al Howat) andywood~#~dial.pipex.pbz (Andy Wood) angus-fraser~#~dial.pipex.pbz (Angus Fraser) billyboy~#~gto.net.bz (Bill Davies) chris.dennis~#~ndirect.co.hx (Chris Dennis) clive~#~cmartin.demon.co.hx (Clive Martin) dave~#~detankard.u-net.pbz (The Fourth Warrior) dave~#~pandroid.zetnet.co.hx (David Deans) denis~#~chf.softnet.co.hx (Denis Fuller) ellen~#~duff.bet (Ellen Stafford) godfrey.room~#~virgin.arg (Godfrey S. Room) grw~#~bedlam.u-net.pbz (The Ancient Geek) james~#~schindler-ord.freeserve.co.hx (James) jane~#~otbo.demon.co.hx (Jane Vernon) jezza~#~hotwells.freeserve.co.hx (Jezza (Jeremy McNeill)) jimavery~#~cableinet.co.hx (Jim Avery) kandw~#~rocketmail.pbz (Bill) lb~#~pipponet.freeserve.co.hx (LB) marysia~#~jadzia.demon.co.hx (Marysia) mutley~#~schitzoid.clara.co.hx (Mutley) spacker~#~iee.bet (Stephen Packer) sue~#~hossackhouse.demon.co.hx (Sue H) suze~#~theworkhouse1.demon.co.hx (Suze) ted~#~the-pub3.demon.co.hx (Ted) tfl~#~psp.co.hx (T Lee) tm6248~#~bristol.ac.hx (Tim Miller) vinceh~#~softrock.co.hx (VinceH) warren~#~gwtech.demon.co.hx (Warren Hoy) Voted No : 16 votes (34.8%) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- alanr~#~lightnet.co.hx (Alan Rayner) alex.dawson~#~uea.ac.hx (Alex Dawson) bryan~#~morris4.demon.co.hx (Bryan Morris) conor~#~puddle.demon.co.hx (Conor O'Neill) david.mayall~#~ukonline.co.hx (Dave Mayall) ijackson~#~chiark.greenend.org.hx (Ian Jackson) james~#~obeah.demon.co.hx (James Coupe) keith.willoughby~#~compaq.pbz (Keith Willoughby) lyn~#~stuffing.demon.co.hx (Lyn David Thomas) mbm~#~acm.bet (Malcolm Mladenovic) merlin~#~cvnet.co.hx (Darren Wyn Rees) mike~#~tw2.pbz (Mike Henry) paul~#~pcserv.demon.co.hx (Paul Carpenter) richard-vote~#~illuin.demon.co.hx (Richard Letts) richard~#~turnpike.pbz (Richard Clayton) vote-uk~#~kholdan.snafu.qr (Tobias Erle) Abstained : 2 votes (4.3%) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- amabbett~#~bham-assist.demon.co.hx (Andy Mabbett) sjfb~#~cirra.pbz (SJFBeckwith) Invalid Votes - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bill_jillians~#~compuserve.pbz (Bill Jillians) ! No name or address on ballot paper - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Votetakers Notes: This was an extremely close vote right up to the close of voting, but as you can see the group has passed by achieving the neccessary +12 majority, albeit barely. There was only one invalid ballot paper received, as indicated above, but the voter neglected to resubmit a valid vote. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This vote was conducted by a neutral third party member of UKVoting. UKVoting is a group of independent votetakers who count votes on CFVs in the uk hierarchy. The rules under which this vote is taken are posted regularly to uk.net.news.announce or can be found at the following URL: ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/news.answers/uk/voting The UKVoting web pages can be found at http://www.ukvoting.org.uk/ There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted to uk.net.news.announce. Allegations of irregularity should be sent to control@usenet.org.uk. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RATIONALE: (including Summary of Discussion) Of late the uk.* group uk.local.southwest has been receiving a lot of attention from advertisers, both genuine local advertisers and corporate spammers. Because of this almost all genuine advertisers have been overlooked - this is a bad thing, since local 'for sale' adverts should be posted to a local, not national, group. By creating a seperate newsgroup for adverts in the SouthWest, we hope to ensure that local advertisers will not be deterred from contributing to their local newsgroup, and, combined with the proposed altered uk.local.southwest charter, the case for ISP intervention against spammers will be reinforced. Also, the (existing) charter for uk.local.southwest indicates that should postings exceed 30 a day, the newsgroup may be split. Postings do indeed exceed this limit, and it is hoped by removing adverts and complaints about adverts this total may fall. SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Many posters replied to say they agreed with the proposals, and cited that the newsgroup uk.l.sw (uk.local.southwest) has been besieged by spam recently. Also, when these advertisers were told to stop, they often turn abusive. As a result, proper local advertisers tended to get overlooked. Many said that a local forum for advertising goods is a good idea, and said they would prefer to look in a local rather than national paper, for example. Several people (but not a majority) said that they supported a new local adverts group, but they would prefer to have the group created in the uk.adverts.* group (ie, uk.adverts.southwest). There were a few valid reasons for this view, but there were equally valid reasons for the original proposal (equivalent to looking in a local paper, or at the local section of a national paper). One person was against all proposals. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PROPOSED CHARTER Newsgroups line: uk.local.southwest.adverts Adverts in the uk.local.southwest area CHARTER: uk.local.southwest.adverts uk.local.southwest.adverts is a local newsgroup intended for advertising regarding local products for sale, local services, local theatre productions (and other arts), and local companies (which do not wish to advertise outside the SouthWest). For the purposes of this newsgroup the SouthWest is defined as including Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Bristol and Bath, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. Users should note the existance of the uk.adverts.* heirarchy and should consider posting matters concerning products for sale nationwide to the relevent group. Crossposting between uk.local.southwest.adverts and uk.adverts.* is discouraged, as uk.local.southwest is intended for local adverts. Private 'for sale' adverts may be posted a maximum of once a week. Commercial adverts may be posted a maximum of once every three weeks. Commercial adverts for the same company/service which are only worded differently will be considered identical. Adverts This is a adverts group, and so adverts are explicitly allowed. There may a moderate discussion about adverts that are posted; any further discussion (over, for example, warnings of possible falsehoods in adverts) should only be posted if there is reasonable evidence. This is a UK newsgroup, and activities which are illegal under UK law (including laws governing paper mail, such as chain email and multi-level marketing) must not be posted. Binaries Binaries are not permitted; pointers to ftp or web sites may be posted. END CHARTER. - -- Barry K A Salter, b.salter@ukvoting.org.uk Posting as a member of UKVoting PGP Key ID: 0x02C5AC93, available from key servers -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBNs/7mmOfGXkh8vHZAQG0EgP/bTGokDbU7f8vC2HORftMrenrGY1oZnt6 6r/+JxvmA/DLJqXbxe6yyzM1PBbF+T/PzW4uyns58wncXExCdB3ygAdrzvzyy7ft UfWNXfqokFh9aoikAfuIeX/bXRnKAALVbMTnYNcY99QOSbiqkBNltQwGxpNt+7+i KhQKFmsUmvQ= =2nS8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----